7th Annual Cheers to Belgian Beers

The 7th Annual Portland to Belgian Beers will be held April 19-20 at Metalcraft Fabrication in Portland. ﻿This festival features over 50 Belgian inspired beers.

In the past, all participating brewers were required to use a single yeast strain and brew a "light" or "dark" beer at random (determined by a dart throw). This year, that rule has been eliminated and brewers can use a variety of yeast strains. The result is a diverse (and delicious) beer list!

For more details, and the beer list, check out all the details below. Cheers to Belgian Beers!

Portland, OR (April 13th, 2013) Cheers to Belgian Beers is back for its seventh year and is changing it up for 2013. The Belgian-style only Ale Festival will feature no single yeast strain for the beers entered, no dart throw to diversify the color and strength of the beers and no People's Choice Award. When Cheers to Belgian Beers started in 2007, it was to help introduce Oregonians to the breadth of style and flavors of beers brewed in Belgium. Since 2008, Oregon brewers have won medals in the Belgian-Style or Sour Ale categories every year at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. In order to showcase these medal winning beers, opening up the Festival to beers that have been aged, blended, barrel aged or soured and not requiring all brewers to do so was necessary. The 2013 Cheers to Belgian Beers currently features 48 beers from 44 breweries with more beers expected by the day of the festival.

For the third year, the festivities will be at Metalcraft Fabrication in Portland, a maker of brewing systems and fermentation tanks for the rapidly growing craft beer industry in Oregon, as well as the United States. The outside area will be tented and food from Philadelphia's Steaks & Hoagies will be available on Friday and Saturday and food from KOi Fusion will be available from noon-6pm on Saturday. If you need to pick up some official Timbers Army merchandise for the match on Sunday, the No Pity Van will be onsite as well. People are encouraged to take public transportation (the TriMet Bus Line 35 stops 1 block away and the Yellow Max Line stops 2 and 3 blocks away) or ride their bike (we will have bike parking outside for 100+ bikes). Parking is available on the street between Broadway and N. Graham St.

What: Cheers to Belgian Beers, Belgian-Style Beer Fest

When: Friday, April 19th from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.and Saturday, April 20th from noon to 8 p.m.

The Oregon Brewers Guild(O.B.G.) is Oregon’s non-profit trade association for the state’s independent craft brewers. The O.B.G. comprises 103 brewing companies, 77 associate or supplier members and more than 3,300 enthusiast members or S.N.O.B.s (Supporters of Native Oregon Beer). For more information, see www.oregonbeer.org.